Man gets 11 years in jail for decade of abuse on pupils

A primary schoolteacher who sexually abused boys in his care for more than a decade was jailed for 11 years yesterday. Peter Shotton was found guilty of sexually abusing three pupils under 13 at Bewbush community primary school in Crawley, West Sussex.

The court heard that Shotton, 55, a former head of discipline at the school, forced the pupils to strip off and perform oral sex on him in secluded corridors.

He denied abusing the boys between 1995 and 2005 but, after a nine-day trial in February, was convicted of 10 counts of sexual assault on a child under 13, causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and indecency with a child.

Judge Anthony Niblett, sitting at Hove crown court, told him he had abused his position for his own sexual gratification and had shown no remorse. "They were in your professional care and you betrayed that trust placed in you as a teacher in the case of each of these three," he said. "These offences were in my judgment made worse by the fact that the abuse was performed on school premises during the school day when they should have felt secure."

The court heard Shotton, a married father of three who had no previous convictions, had the support of his wife Liz and their two adult children.

In a statement she said: "You would find nobody less capable of committing the terrible crimes for which he has been imprisoned than Peter. I am shocked that this has happened after a trial in which there was not a single piece of independent evidence. We will of course continue our fight to establish his innocence."

Judge Niblett said Shotton's abuse had "devastated" the boys' lives.

The psychological effects on one was so severe that, "unless he receives counselling and help he is likely to be permanently damaged for the rest of his life".